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PLUG

07 May, 2005

The official announcement arrives - the Big Golf Balls are no longer going to be alone at the party. Competition is coming. Albeit in the form of a 40% government owned entity, the UAE's telco monopoly is at last moving to a duopoly.

It remains to be seen whether the move represents true liberalisation or a WTO-appeasing Etisalat clone. Rather than putting the second licence to tender, the government is awarding it directly.

Stock market circles felt the company would be based in Dubai with operations throughout the UAE.

"It will be modelled along the lines of Etisalat," a TRA spokesman said.

But the most burning question is: proxy or no? Will Etisalat v2.0 also reduce html browsing to a 300 baud crawl as it scours every single URL for possible atrocities? Or will UAE netizens finally be able to Google "Octopussy"?